Improved school-desk



V'nitr tatr attt ffice.

JAMES E. BLAIR, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT. Leners Patent No. 63,839, maApril 1c, ism.

IMPROVED SCHOOL-DESK.

@In Stlphnle manch tu in tlgtse tctters nteut mit mating put nf tigttime.

TO'ALL WIIOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, JAMES E. BLAIR, of New Haven, in the county of NewHaven, and State of Connecticut, have invented a new improvement inSchool-Desks; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken inconnection with the accompanying drawings and the letters'of' referencemarked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same,and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, andrepresent, in-

Figure 1 an end view, showing the cover of the desk one side up; and inFigure 2 a similar View, the cover reversed.

This invention consists in preparing one side of the desk cover so as togive to it a slate or similar enamelled or plated surface, and thereverse side simply 'the ordinary wood surface, and the said cover sohinged to the desk that the cover may be turnedso as to present eitherside uppermost.

To enable others to construct my improvement, I will proceed to describethe same as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

A is the desk form of common construction; B the cover. One side of thesaid cover (as denoted by the darkened line, the under side in tig. I) Icoat with any composition7 which, when inished, shall present a smoothenamelled or slate surface, or, if preferred7 a plate of common slatemay be secured thereon, yet, for practical purposes, the coating isbest; the other or reverse side (which is the upper side in g. 1) Iiinish in the ordinary manner for schooldesks- I hinge the said cover Bto the form A by a'bar, C, upon either end, pivoted to the cover at aand to the form at CZ, that is to say, at such point that by raising thecover, as' denoted in red, iig. 1,turning it over, as denoted in red,iig. 2, the cover will drop into the position denoted in tig. 2,presenting the reverse or enamelled side of the cover, and returned tothe position, denoted in iig. l, by raising the cover, as denoted inred, iig, 2, then returning it, as seen in fig. 1.

The object of this improvement is to dispense with thc use of the commonschool-slate, which is a source of great annoyance in schools from thenoise made by the scholars in their use. When the scholar requires theslate, turn the cover to present the slate or enamclled surfaceuppermost, as seen in fig. 2, and when no longer requiredreverse thecover, as before described; thus the slate becomes a fixture, not liableto be broken or to the many objections which exist to the use of thecommon slate.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new Ianduseful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A school-desk cover, reversible in the manner substantially asdescribed, having one of its surfaces coated or plated, as herein setforth.

` JAMES E. BLAIR.

Witnesses:

JOHN E. EARLE, JOHN H. SuUiuwAY.

